1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin-film capacitor and an electronic circuit board.
2. Related Background Art
As electronic devices have been attaining a greater number of functions, electronic circuit boards included in the electronic devices have been desired to have various functions added thereto. Therefore, the electronic circuit boards tend to increase the number of electronic components mounted thereon. Such electronic circuit boards have strongly been desired to improve the area for mounting electronic components. As an answer to such demands, it has been proposed to embed electronic components within the electronic circuit boards. One of electronic components widely used in the electronic circuit boards is a multilayer ceramic capacitor which has conventionally been known. Embedding the conventional multilayer ceramic capacitor into a board, however, has been problematic in that the brittleness resulting from the thickness of the capacitor and the property of being ceramics may generate a stress in the process of embedding, thereby causing cracks in the capacitor, deforming the substrate in the embedded part, and so forth. These problems have been hard to overcome even when a very small multilayer ceramic capacitor is used. Therefore, as a capacitor to be embedded into the board, a low-profile capacitor which is thinner than the multilayer ceramic capacitor has been desired. Conventionally known as a low-profile capacitor is a thin-film capacitor (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2000-91531, 2001-189422, and 2008-109082).